Section: 38
Hours: 2

I did last minute touch up sanding and surface prep on the canopy skirt and then primed it.

Section:
Hours: 3

I mounted the aileron trim servo and added the spring clips to the aileron actuator tube. First I mounted the servo to one of the wing access panels and ran the actuator arm to center. Then, with the actuator tube connected to the aileron, I set the aileron to the center position using the rigging template attached to the end of the wing. Finally I lined up the mounting plate to the hole in the wing and used a drafting triangle and angle measure tool to transfer the center point to the actuator tube.

I then removed the actuator tube from the wing, marked the positions for the spring clips and drilled the rivet holes for the clips.

I used the provided pull rivets to attach the clips and then installed the aileron actuator tube back in the wing. I won't attach the springs until after I attach the wings to the fuselage and get the final rigging set.

Section: 41
Hours: 4

I fabricated pushrods for the flaps and aileron connections between the fuselage and wings.

Section: avionics
Hours: 4

Today I finished up some wiring projects. First up was adding the connector cable to the roll servo in the wing.

I discovered the hole in the servo bracket that the connector mounts in was too small. Luckily I was able to reach in with the Dremel and enlarge the hole.

The db connector attaches to the back of the servo and the other connector goes through the servo mounting bracket and then plugs into the wiring harness from the wing.

I also finished up mounting the GMU22 magnetometer in the wing. I used the mounting kit that came with my panel from SteinAir. This kit fits into the ADAHRS mounting plate which inserts into rails built into the wing.

Section: 41
Hours: 1

I had previously prepped and primed the wing/fuselage intersection panels. The panel that wraps around the leading edge must be bent to match the curvature of the wing. I found some PVC pipe of the proper diameter, chucked it up in my vise and easily applied the specified radius bend.

Section: 38
Hours: 6

The epoxy has cured so I sanded the skin coat on the canopy.

I had also skin coated the empennage fairing. Today I sanded it down and applied primer.

Unfortunately, it looks like the skin coat I applied with the foam roller brush did not fully penetrate all the pin holes. This part did not have a gel coat and had lots of pin holes. I will have to sand off the primer and reapply epoxy using a squeegee. Here's a good writeup on SkimCoating.

Pinholes - gaaack!!!!

Section: 38
Hours: 7

I sanded down the micro balloons and then applied an epoxy skin coat using the foam roller brush.

Section: 38
Hours: 8

Today I sanded the fiberglass and carefully feathered the edges. I was careful not to sand through to the plexiglass.

Then I applied epoxy/micro balloons to fill the pinholes, rivet indentations and to blend the edge of the fiberglass into the aluminum.

It was another cold day. I've been use a propane space heater to warm up the garage so the epoxy will cure.

Section: 38
Hours: 6

I was not happy with the way the fiberglass around the canopy turned out. I had sanded through to the plexiglass in several places so I was worried about the fiberglass skirt being strong enough in those areas. Also, the fiberglass I had applied looked too translucent when seen from inside the cockpit.

Today I applied a couple more layers of glass with darkly pigmented epoxy. These should cover the areas I sanded through to the Plexiglas and add additional color.